Fransi Weinstein

Fransi is one of the most awarded copywriter/creative directors in Canada, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Marketing Association in 2000. She has both launched brands and driven results while at Y&R … Grey … J Walter Thompson … Ogilvy … BBDO … and as a founding partner, President and Chief Creative Officer of tattoo direct + digital.

Over the years Weinstein has found time to pen a monthly column for Strategy, contribute articles to Marketing, sit on the Advisory Board for the Humber College Copywriting Program, sit on the Board of the Colorectal Cancer Screening Initiative Foundation, and speak at industry conferences in both Canada and the USA.

She is also currently working on a book and can also be found blogging at http://weinstein365.wordpress.com.

Campaign promises. Bah! There should be a rule preventing candidates from making them. Because they rarely, if ever, deliver. It would be bad enough if they said "If I'm elected I would like to ........

This is what happens when you stubbornly vote for a third party candidate -- but your country has a two-party system. This is what happens when you spitefully write in your preferred candidate's name on the ballot (even though he lost the primary). This is what happens. You don't win. You lose. And you lose big.

In the few days since Donald Trump was elected all I hear from some of the media, from some of his surrogates, from some of his pals is, "he only said those disgusting and outrageous things to get elected." They keep saying we'll see a "different Donald Trump, a kinder, gentler Donald Trump in the Oval Office." WTF?

Despite all the warnings, despite all the evidence, Americans elected a snake charmer, a man who's made a career out of taking advantage of people and then discarding them like a used tissue, who's made a career out of protecting no one's interests but his own.

We don't even get a minute to catch our breath. We weren't yet fully recovered from hearing about James Comey's inappropriate letter to Congress, and BOOM! Monday night I read, on Facebook, that Don...

It has nothing to do with whether you're a Republican or a Democrat. It has nothing to do with whether you want Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump to become president. It appears that James Comey has violated Justice Department rules and that should be deeply troubling to everyone.

The down-ballot race going on right now isn't getting the attention it deserves. Not good, because the stakes are very, very high. So unless voters want the next four years to look like the last eight, they better show up at voting booths and pay as much attention to the bottom of the ballot as they do to the top.

After all this time, and all that exposure, he's never explained how he'll get any of his proposed initiatives accomplished. He hasn't even been clear about what those initiatives are. What has come through loud and clear since the beginning, is that he's deranged, incompetent and dangerous -- and there's a frighteningly large number of Americans who love him for it.

How many debates have we endured? There have been so many I've lost count. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think there were 12 GOP debates during the primaries, five for the Democrats, plus one town hall, one vice-presidential debate and three presidential debates. Geeze Louise, talk about overkill.

Let's face it. The guy's a pig. A pig who thinks that when you're a "star," it's okay to grope women and kiss them without their consent, that it's not sexual assault. Wrong. But there may be one faint silver lining from all this -- and naturally, it has nothing to do with Trump himself.

No, I am not an idealist who sees Canada through rose-coloured glasses. We're not perfect by any means. We have mistakes to correct and amends to make. We have work to do. But would we ever succumb to the toxic rhetoric of a sleaze ball like Donald Trump? Would we let a dangerous lunatic like him drag our country through the mud, making a mockery of everything we stand for, making us the laughing stock of the world, putting everything we hold dear at risk, turning us against each other, turning us against our allies?

Donald Trump is making it okay to be unspeakably rude. We see (and hear it) with his children, his surrogates and his supporters. The threats, the yelling, the swearing, the snarling, the finger pointing, the fist shaking, the interruptions, the shoving, the pushing, the getting right in your face. And now that this torrent of horrid behaviour has been unleashed, I wonder if we'll ever get back to a time where we wait our turn, let others speak, have tolerance and respect and act honourably. A time when we stop behaving like boors.

I've loved politics pretty much my entire adult life, both Canadian and U.S. I've always been an enthusiastic and avid follower and I've been known to watch every rally, speech and debate. I've also been known to stay up half the night waiting for the last vote to be counted.

September 20. It was an ordinary Tuesday, at least it started out that way. The sun was shining, I worked on a writing assignment in the morning and then I went shopping for a birthday gift. I returne...

I'm probably getting ahead of myself. The leaves haven't even started to change colour yet, at least not downtown where I live. And there's really no chill in the air either, just the humidity's gone, which I love. So from my perspective, the weather couldn't be better. But it is almost the end of September and I've always dreaded Fall.

I first read Lost Horizon back in grade school. Don't make me tell you how long ago that was. In those days, we were given a required reading list at the very beginning of the school year. And each time we finished a book we had to hand in a review. All the books were available at the school library.

I've got aging on my mind right now. Last Spring I celebrated a not insignificant birthday. Who am I kidding? They're all significant now. A few months ago I watched Isabel Allende's Ted Talk on living passionately at 71. It really inspired me. I've done a lot of thinking about age and aging since, and I've come to the following conclusions.

One thing is certain. If he gets elected, she'll be out of a job. There won't be any immigrants to welcome, the Donald will see to that. And the very values America was founded upon, the very values that have made it the greatest, most powerful nation on earth, the very values that have attracted millions of foreigners in search of the American dream will cease to exist.

We were in the South, in Kerala; and just getting ready to leave Munnar -- a tiny hill station where we'd spent a couple of days. We were headed for Cochin. There we'd spend our last, remaining day, until it was time to catch our flight to Mumbai -- and yet another flight back home.